Garbage poses threat to railways

With water-logged roads and incessant traffic, for many in the City, the MMTS is a convenient way to travel, especially in the monsoons. But, flooded tracks and garbage could cause train delays

With the monsoons here, heavy rains and thunderstorms can spell doom for the many means of transport, especially the railways. As the City’s roads are indefinitely clogged with traffic during rains, the MMTS offers a faster means of commuting. Every day, an average 1,60,000 people depend on the MMTS as their mode of transport.

But while this option may seem safe and fast, there are certain glitches that come with the monsoons if the railways does not take precautions. Water-logging on train tracks can delay train timetables by hours, thus paralysing the last reliable mode of transport.

Heavy rains bring with them, excessive mud and garbage that can block drainage in the rail network. With the City’s MMTS rail network being surrounded by slum settlements through most of its routes, the train tracks are the garbage dumping yards for these people.

Since the last two days, Hyderabad has received over 16 cms of rainfall in the past two days, though not to an extent of submerging the tracks and calling all the trains to a halt. Nonetheless, as per the guidelines prescribed by the Southern Central Railways, pre-monsoon and monsoon precautions are to be taken to ensure the smooth functioning of the railways.

In certain parts of the City’s MMTS track network, especially the stretch from Necklace Road to Khairatabad, huge mounds of garbage are seen sprawling over the tracks. If this is left to be, the catch water drains and side drains will get clogged and obstruct the flow of storm water. The same can be said about Secunderabad Railway Station where water is seen stagnating on the tracks as the cross drains provided seem to have not been cleared of silt and vegetation.

Furthermore, in case a railway track gets submerged, all trains plying in the route are allowed to proceed only at a speed of 10 kmph.

Linemen are to be pressed into service, to patrol the tracks abreast and check to see if the track has been disturbed or not. For all of this, there should be a constant watch and monitoring over the rail track network by linemen and patrolmen. When contacted, the chief PRO of Southern Central Railways K Sambasiva Rao said, “We are cleaning up the drains with the help of patrolmen and have contracted rag pickers to keep the tracks free of garbage. Furthermore, the design of the City’s rail network is such that it can handle the monsoons with all the provided storm water drains and cross drains.”

Tags: featured, full-image, garbage, MMTS, rail tracks, water-clogged roads

Category: City, City News